ampfixer
Can I continue to listen to the same Pink Floyd and Genesis albums forever? Not much fun considering they were memorized 30 years ago.
 

No need, there are many modern bands doing stuff in that vein, some in my opinion superior to the old classics.

Maybe it is because melody is the hardest part to do, to be original takes the highest talent and that does not come along every day.

I expect the relative insignificance of melody in popular music is largely due to two main recent influences. The first is rap, which in its purest sense is amelodic. Having captured the popular attention and the need of a new generation to establish a unique musical voice, in no small part in order to annoy their parents, the big contemporary music investment is in the beat uber alles direction. The second, influence can be tracked right to the doorstep of our beloved DAW's, which provide a really easy way to do loop based composition, as well as explore sonic textures that tend to dominate over melodic content. If you conceptualize making music as connecting a bunch of different colored legos, you naturally have to use what is in your toy box quite differently than if you start with a glob of amorphous modeling clay--your results all tend to have right angles rather than flowing lines. 

I've been trying to listen to EDM and modern radio/XM stations while in the car lately.  I'm still doing it, but not much has really grabbed me.
 
 

The fact that there is a decrease in the appreciation of music should not come as a surprise to anyone. We have removed music (and the other arts) from our schools. If you are not taught about the various types and styles of music when you are young, why would you have any idea of the various differences (or be able to discriminate) when you get older. For me, I have loved bluegrass for the musician's involved and the skill they show, plus its connection to the roots of American music. I also enjoy rock of the 70s, country of the 80s, and big band of the 40s. I like Bach and Beethoven, Rogers and Hammerstein, and John Phillips Sousa. I have been drawn to Celtic music and believe one of the best Celtic groups around is 'Orthodox Celts' from Bosnia, Serbia. But this is no accident. I had teachers in school (elementary through high) who gave us an appreciation for all styles of music. The vocal chorus groups sang and the band played a wide variety of music. You just don't see this anymore. And the few big companies who control the music industry have no financial reason to want to change the status quo.

sharke. With literature, we're expected to move on from childhood and appreciate higher forms. With music, nobody cares if you're still listening to nursery rhymes in your 40's. 

well said-lets not forget vocals-contemporary metal especially-I appreciate the mechanics but when the cookie monster starts singing it cracks me up...
 
 

webbs hill studio

sharke. With literature, we're expected to move on from childhood and appreciate higher forms. With music, nobody cares if you're still listening to nursery rhymes in your 40's. 

well said-lets not forget vocals-contemporary metal especially-I appreciate the mechanics but when the cookie monster starts singing it cracks me up...
 
 

I've always called it "puking into the microphone" and, typically, it ruins for me what is otherwise a really good song.

SoundRegion
When you listen to modern music and also some of the submissions in the songs forum, I noticed that there's not much melody in it anymore. ...

I sometimes think that 20th century music, was  about the "anti-melody" thing and concept, but the part of music that is easiest to listen to and enjoy, is always the "melody", and it is the first thing that most rock music, and popular music goes for. 
 
In my estimation, it defines the limit of the range in the music, when all one can stick to is the melody, as there is a lot more that can be happening in the piece itself, and you can even go way back to Mozart, and I like to specially point out Stravinsky ... some might not find "melody" in there, but in the end, it's just a "different" kind of melody.
 
Music is about the coordination and compilation of sounds, and sometimes it would seem rather ludicrous to have an orchestra with 75 instruments and they are all playing the exact same thing, which in fact, they mostly are not. Rock music in the past 50 to 60 years, has been, for the most part, extremely repetitive and commercially minded, and not willing, or capable of checking out something else ... and pretty soon, someone is going to say about Miles Davis ... where's the melody? ... it's not a "theme" that lasts 30 seconds that you can hum ... it's a whole piece that can last ... 30 minutes, an hour ... a lifetime.
 
Hopefully this helps ... I like extending things and experimentation, but that means that there are other modes of music to be invented ... not the same ones to be redone differently, is how I look at it.

Moshkito

SoundRegion
When you listen to modern music and also some of the submissions in the songs forum, I noticed that there's not much melody in it anymore. ...

I sometimes think that 20th century music, was  about the "anti-melody" thing and concept, but the part of music that is easiest to listen to and enjoy, is always the "melody", and it is the first thing that most rock music, and popular music goes for. 
 
 
 

 
I think the exact opposite is true Pedro, most rock and pop music is about the 'beat' or the 'groove' or the 'riff' with melody tacked on afterwards. There is no limit at all with melody, it can be as simple or as complex as the writer wants it to be.
 

There hasn't been a new paradigm since rap (destroyed music :) over 30 years ago.  Revenue peaked for record companies around the turn of the century (16 years ago) and we've been mired in egalitarian, millenial pablum for way too long.  The baby boomers need to teach these younger generations how to rock and loike soon!  Before the old farts are all gone!  Truly, truly it's the neo-liberal egalitarian stuff that has perverted everything from poly ticks to cooking (pbs is 90% cooking shows now thought you'd like to know).  Though fascism is decidedly not desired in power structures in music it does very well I must say.  There's IS a difference between good and bad.  The public just needs to be told what it is!!!
 
Sorry to be so cynical, but it's feckin true!